


Ships Passing in the Night

by RoyHankins



Category: Powerpuff Girls, Xiaolin Showdown (Cartoon), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, My Hero Academia AU, Quirkless Jack, Set in America, Spicerpuffs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:20:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22399231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoyHankins/pseuds/RoyHankins
Summary: When Jack Spicer moved to the City of Townsville, he thought it would be the perfect place to begin his global takeover. What he didn't think was that he'd run into a teenage Hero his first time out and about. What he really didn't think was that he'd end up falling for her.
Relationships: Jack Spicer/Blossom Utonium
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	Ships Passing in the Night

“Mwahahahahaha!” The midrange cackle floated through the chilly night air of the city, the source flying two hundred feet in the air. “Step 1: Move to a new location to plan my **Global Conquest** , check!” If the good people of the City of Townsville hadn’t been fast asleep by this late hour, as midnight approached, they likely would have looked out their windows to see who was unleashing this catastrophic cacophony on them with nothing in the way of remorse. “Step 2: Do a late night flyover to get a good idea of the first city I can truly claim as my own, in-progress!” What dastardly villain could be behind this? What ne’er-do-well has begun peruse the buildings of this fair city, just as a child might gaze at a toy isle with their parent’s money? “Step 3: Make the City of Townsville rue the day it ever heard the name Jack Spicer, Evil Boy Genius! Ahahaha-”

“Can you keep it down?” What’s this? Unaccustomed to having his evil laughter so rudely interrupted, Jack Spider turned in midair to see, standing on a nearby rooftop, was a hero. With her long red hair tied up in a ponytail with a red ribbon, the pink-eyed heroine stole Jack’s attention like a skilled cat-burglar. Standing at a breathtaking six foot two, the girl looked to be about Jack’s age, with thigh-high red boots, a dark pink skirt and top combo, and a light pink jacket on top. She had support items to go with all that, some sort of plastic mask to go around her mouth, connected by tubes to her shoulders, her arms, her palms. Jack was immediately interested in her Quirk and in who made her costume. “You’ll wake someone up.”

Running pale fingers, nails painted black with polish, through his bright red hair, Jack looked at her with awe. This was, in point of fact, his first time meeting a hero since leaving his previous city of residence. She was stylish, that was sure, almost as much as himself, with his long black coat, fingerless gloves, yellow goggles, black mascara, and homemade personal propeller backpack. Without thinking, he immediately lowered his voice, acquiescing unconsciously to her demand. “Sorry about that, didn’t know you were there...” Then, as his voice trailed off, he shook his head, as if to shake off the spell she’d put him under. Raising his voice one more, he told her, “Ah, so a self-appointed ‘Defender of Justice’ comes to seek me at last! Well, I hope you know, uh...” His speech trailed off, realizing he didn’t know her name.

“Blossom,” she supplied, actually looking entertained by this so far.

“...Blossom!” Jack almost let slip this thought about how cute her name was, but let that roll by and continued what he’d been meaning to say. “I hope you know that today, you have the honor of meeting the future ruler of the world! The greatest villain in history! Jack Spicer, Evil Boy Genius!” This time, he decided to forgo a round of evil laughter, as this was looking to be an actual exchange of dialogue, and cackling madly was best saved for the end.

Giving him a smile that melted his heart, Blossom replied, “Yeah, you said so already. Like I said, I’m Blossom, Blossom Utonium. Despite your claims, so far you haven’t actually broken any laws, that I can see anyway. So, if you can just go home and keep the noise level down, I can get out of your hair.”

Hadn’t...hadn’t committed any crimes?! Jack blushed at this insinuation, as if he wasn’t the most evil, diabolical teenager in the world. “I’ll have you know that it’s illegal to use support items to fly without a permit! And you can’t stop me!” Then, before she could say anything else to make him look back, Jack flew off into the night, laughing to himself. Okay, so, he’d already gotten the attention of a local hero. Sure, she was probably still in school, but here in the United States she’d still be able to patrol and arrest villains, so long as she had the proper license. Jack had hoped to avoid any heat from the superpowered government pawns until he was ready to unleash true havok the likes of which they’d never seen, but he hoped it wouldn’t prove to be any large stumbling block to his still-in-development schemes.

The only real issue with his perfect, amazing, unmatched flying support item was the fact that, while it gave him amazing verticle mobility, the actual speed of travel could be somewhat...limited. Enough that heading back to his new secret base was going to take him at least another half hour. “The design is pretty good, but you might want to look into something jet-propelled, for speed.” The voice, Blossom’s, came from a few feet to Jack’s right, and he turned to see her standing there, the plastic mask covering her mouth and slightly muffling her voice, staring at him with those eyes he was quickly finding he could get lost in. Wondering how she was so high in the sky, he looked down to see her standing on a bridge of ice, connected one building to another. She was walking at a slightly brisk pace to keep even with his own speed.

Remembering what she’d just said to him, Jack sputtered to find the right words, “I, you, ice, jets,” until he’d finally found the right word to actually start his sentence. “Jets! I’ve tried those, and they don’t work for me. They eat up way too much fuel, getting them to hover in place is a practical nightmare, and they kept setting my coat on fire!” The cool-factor of a jet-propelled backpack couldn’t be denied, of course, so he had kept up trying to perfect it for longer than was strictly necessary.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Blossom rub her chin with her left hand, while smoothly transitioning from her personal ice-bridge to the roof of the building. “Well, you could try trimming the length of your costume. You could probably trim three or four inches off of your overcoat and fix that last problem entirely.” Oh, Jack realized, she was just as smart as she was pretty. This was _not good_.

Unable to stop the faint tinge of pink from appearing on his cheeks, Jack explained his flawless reasoning. “I like my coat more than I’d like a jetpack.” After all, what point was there to being a supervillain, if you couldn’t be one with style? Then, feeling the need to send some sort of jab back at her, Jack commented, “Aren’t your ice-bridges kind of hazardous? I mean, I wouldn’t care, because I’m evil, but you’re a hero. Leaving stuff like that around isn’t exactly great for your image.”

Now it was time for the heroine to blush, the shade the exact same pink hue as her eyes. “They melt.” That’s all she said at first, and it left Jack to immediately think about the puddles they’d leave behind. Wouldn’t that be a slipping hazard, especially on the roof of a building? As if she was reading his mind, Blossom added, “They’ll dry out before morning.” They continued without talking for a little bit, though Jack did get to see how she made her little bridges. After inhaling, Blossom exhaled what looked like a thick blue mist, which followed through her plastic tubes and into her hands, where it became a pair of bright blue lasers that froze the moisture in the air into ice, starting on the roof she was standing on and aiming it in an arc to the next one she was going do. There was a slight elevation change, and Jack made sure to compensate so they stayed around eye-level. So, she could breath ice...that was an interesting Quirk. “Despite what you said about you flying around, which you’re right is definitely against the law, I’m not going to arrest you or anything.”

“Yeah, I assumed,” Jack responded, rolling his eyes. “In my experience, heroes don’t go on nighttime strolls with villains they’re intending to capture.” The second the words left his mouth, Jack realized how it had sounded and started blushing harder, and a peak at the hero’s face showed she was in the same boat, while staring forward and avoiding any eye contact with Jack. “But, you are clearly curious about the new villain in town, Jack Spicer.” Letting his regular ego fluffing push away those other, more meddlesome thoughts, he was able to continue talking. “If you want, I can tell you all about me. Maybe tomorrow afternoon, that coffee place on 5th and Main?”

Sure, it sounded like a date, but it definitely wasn’t! It was just to make sure they understood each other: hero and villain, eternal foes, each watching the other for their next move! It had nothing to do with how pretty she was, or how much he loved her hair and wanted to run his fingers through it, or how he was really interested in exactly how her Quirk and support items worked together. Okay, he could lie to himself, but Jack knew it definitely sounded like a date. And being the weird-looking guy he was, he’d already prepared himself for her inevitable refusa- “Okay,” she squeaked, her voice suddenly higher pitched. “Meet you there at 4.” Then, she was gone, and Jack was left to fly back to his new home, wondering if the meeting had even really happened.

* * *

Rather than explain where she was going, Blossom had just told her sisters, “I need to go pick some things up,” as they all left their high school’s grounds together, heading in the opposite direction of where she was actually going just so they could split up. Bubbles looked sad, Buttercup looked annoyed, but neither commented on it. Blossom was glad, she didn’t really have it in her to lie to her sisters. Plus, she didn’t even know what she would tell them. ‘Oh, remember how I was patrolling last night? I found this wannabe-supervillain, and when he asked me out I said yes.’

Even to herself, Blossom couldn’t think of why she’d said yes. Sure, his costume was adorably over-the-top edgy, and he clearly knew his way around technology, and the way the pitch of his voice went up when he was nervous made her laugh...okay, there were a lot of reasons she’d said yes. Still, she had an hour until they were supposed to meet, and Blossom didn’t want to get there second. It didn’t take her long to reach Fresh Brew, where she chose to set on at an outside table so she could see when Jack got there, if he came. She was still wearing her school uniform, grey blazer and skirt with black leggings underneath, and half a dozen times as she waited Blossom wished she’d gone home to change into something nicer first. As a nearby clock ticked closer and closer to the agreed time, Blossom started to wonder if he was even going to show.

But show he did, still wearing the same outfit as last night, including the high tech flying backpack. Either he was ready for a fight, if necessary, or he just thought he looked good like that. One option was disheartening, the other cute. Blossom rose from her seat as he approached, and realized then how much taller she was, by more than half a foot. It actually enhanced his cuteness on her end, but she did worry. After all, a lot of guys weren’t interested in dating girls taller than them. “Let’s get a table,” was all she told him at first, and to his credit Jack dutifully followed her inside, where a server put them at a table for two. No comments were made about Jack’s weird choices of attire, like his swirly-eyed goggles resting on his forehead or the vaguely skull-shaped broach in the middle of his chest, but some people were definitely staring. Blossom ordered a chai tea, Jack a hot chocolate with extra whipped cream and sprinkles on top.

Blossom knew that if she didn’t start the conversation, he would, and from what she’d seen last night he’d take it in some silly places, and quickly. Not that Blossom disliked silly, but she did want to take this date seriously. “I did some research last night, after I got home,” she started, but aside from a widening of his eyes, Jack didn’t say anything. “About you, I mean.”

That put a smug grin on his face, his pearly whites glinting in the artificial light of the business. “Oh really? One chance encounter with Jack Spicer, Evil Boy Genius, and you knew you had to know everything about me?” It had been pretty obvious to Blossom that his confidence was mostly feigned, probably hiding some serious insecurities, but that’s why Blossom found herself liking it. Actual smugness would have been much more intolerable.

Now, it was her turn to look smug. Grinning back at him, doing what she could to match his own expression, Blossom decided to deflate Jack’s head a little. “Yeah, and what I found was pretty interesting. See, there were definitely reports of someone named ‘Jack Spicer, Evil Boy Genius’ on the HeroNet, but you’re not a Villain, at least not on the books. You’ve been arrested a few times, but always released. Your tussles with that hero team never led to any evidence of wrongdoing, and while you were definitely spotted hanging around Villains, that was it. So, unless I see otherwise, I don’t know if I can consider you a ‘bad guy’.”

Sure enough, he deflated, but more than she was hoping for. His genial smile disappeared, and suddenly his head was in his crossed arms on the table, and she could hear him crying. That wasn't...she hadn’t actually made him cry, right? “I am,” she heard him sniffle quietly. “I **am** a real bad guy. I’ve got an evil lab, and I make robots, and...”

Blossom had no idea why being ‘evil’ was so important to Jack, especially when it was clear he really wasn’t. In fact, while some of the reports from his previous local heroes had been disparaging, to say the least, more recent references to Jack mentioned him teaming up with them, saving their lives from actual Villains, and being a pretty swell person all around. But she was afraid that bringing it up would just make this worse for him, and put a hand on his shoulder tentatively before saying quietly, “Okay, Jack. I believe you. You’re a really bad guy, and I’m probably the only one who can stop you from taking over the world.”

After a few seconds, Jack turned his head up, so she could see his tear-stained face looking at her with a pleading expression. “Really? You mean it?” Smiling at him, Blossom nodded her head, and Jack quickly wiped the evidence of his crying away before trying to look cocky and smarmy again. “Yeah, well, you’re probably the only hero who’d have a chance, anyway. Does your Quirk do anything else, besides the freezing breath thing?”

Taking a quick inhale, Blossom let out a small huff of fire from her mouth, enough that hopefully no one else would notice her using her Quirk in public. Technically, it wasn’t illegal to be doing that, since she had a Teen Hero Licence, but that would still require a lot of explaining if seen by the wrong person. “Fire and ice,” she explained. “I designed my costume so I could funnel the energy into concentrated blasts or streams.” Then, unable to help her curiosity after seeing nothing about it online, she asked, “So, what’s your Quirk?”

The faux-Villain rolled his eyes at her. “I don’t have one.” Suddenly feeling very embarrassed, Blossom was saved having to apologize when Jack continued, “I don’t need one.” Tapping one pale finger to his temple, Jack told her, “See, I’ve got my brain. That helicopter backpack? Mine. My tech skills are top notch.” Then, almost off-handedly, he added, “Yours are pretty good too, I guess.” Blossom did take that as a compliment, since it was clear he thought more than them than he was saying, but still a small awkward silence followed, filled when the server brought their drinks. Within seconds, Jack’s face was covered in whipped cream and colorful sprinkles, and it was hard for Blossom not to burst out into laughter. “So, what’s your Hero name?”

Now it was Blossom’s turn to feel embarrassed. Rubbing the back of her head with one hand, she started sipping at her tea in the other and looked out the window, into the city she’d been born and raised in. “I’m, uh, a bit indecisive about that. Right now I’m just going by my name.” Jack let out a mildly sinister chuckle at that, which made Blossom give him a dirty look. “You don’t have room to talk, ‘Jack Spicer, Evil Boy Genius’. Laugh all you want, but I don’t know any villains who go by their actual name.”

Raising up a hand, Jack started counting off his fingers. “Lex Luthor, Doctor Doom, T.O. Morrow.” Blossom could have brought up that he wasn’t necessarily in the same category as those villains, but stopped herself before she said something that would have hurt his feelings. The server brought the bill for their drinks, and Blossom flinched reading the total. This place was too expensive, she was _not_ coming back anytime soon. But before she could pull out her walled, Jack already had his out, putting a card on it for the server to take away. When Blossom gave him a Look, he just shrugged. “I’m rich, don’t worry your cute head about it, Pinkeye.” She was not going to say anything to the silly nickname, but she wasn’t okay with using money that might have come from crime in any way. Rolling his eyes, Jack assuaged that fear. “It’s my folks’s cash. I can’t say they got it doing the right thing, but it’s not dirty money either.”

Actually feeling pretty sure he was telling her the truth, Blossom finished her tea and watched out of the corner of her eye as Jack tipped their server twice what he’d paid for the drinks. Any hope of actually convincing her he was a villain died right then and there. Together, they left the cafe and Jack followed Blossom as she started heading off towards home. Looking at him out of the corner of her eye, the fact she could easily scoop Jack into her arms and fireman carry him around hit her and became the cutest mental image she’d ever had. Trying to brush that aside, Blossom hoped she wasn’t blushing when she asked Jack, “So, why should I consider a second date with you?”

The idea that this had in fact been a date, and there could be a second one, seemed to hit Jack Spicer’s mind like a freight train going a hundred miles and hour, and he had to jog to catch back up with Blossom as she kept walking. “Rrrrrrrreason number one! We’re clearly both nerds!”

That was certainly a pejorative that had been thrown her way over the years, sometimes even from her sisters. It was certainly true, but she couldn’t help jabbing back a little. “I think you’re more of a ‘dork’ than a ‘nerd’.”

If Jack cared at all about the distinction, he sure as hell didn’t show it. “Reason the sequel! You’re a Hero, I’m a Villain!” Blossom must have given him a look that made it clear she wasn’t understanding how that was a reason they should date, even as she was smiling at how his reason numbering had already broken down. Jack elaborated, “It’s like Yin and Yang, baby!”

“I don’t know if that’s really a great reason for why we should see each other...” Blossom said. Sure, she liked Jack, but if he actually became a real Villain, any kind of relationship would be...difficult to maintain, to say the least.

Rather than responding to her criticism, Jack just powered through. “Reason number the third! Adorable height difference!” For added effect, he raised one hand level with the top of his head, while stretching the other to try and meet hers.

Once again, Jack was making Blossom laugh. “Well, I’m glad you’re aware of it.” She certainly did not tell him that she also found their height difference cute, and the fact he liked it himself was a big enough plus to possibly make up for their polar opposite life goals.

“And reason numero four...” Jack said, lowering his volume and letting his energy die down almost completely, his voice suddenly deeply pensive and serious. “...you’re the first girl I’ve ever met who I think might actually like me.” Blossom definitely found that sweet. Pathetic, certainly, but also sweet. Jack kept going though. “But more than that, it feels like you’re happy around me. And I like it when you’re happy.”

Well, that was that, wasn’t it? Pulling out her cell phone, Blossom asked Jack, “What’s your cell phone number?” Surprised, he hurriedly mumbled some digits at her, to which Blossom sent a quick message, making Jack’s phone vibrate in his coat pocket. “There, we’ve got each other’s numbers now. We can talk schedules, and decide what works for next time.” Then, just because she felt like it, Blossom leaned down and kissed Jack on the cheek. The mad scientist turned such a deep shade of red that he looked like a tomato, and Blossom couldn’t stop herself from feeling proud of herself for getting that effect. “You should get going, I’m almost at my place.”

Before Jack left, he stoop on the tips of his toes to kiss Blossom’s cheek back. “Now we’re even, Pinkeye.” Now that he’d had the last word, Jack turned on his backpack and flew away, leaving Blossom blushing just as much as Jack had been. Taking a deep breath, Blossom went back to walking home, and started trying to think of a way she was going to explain, sooner or later, to her sisters on why she was now dating a self-proclaimed Evil Boy Genius.

**Author's Note:**

> Major credit for this goes to Spicerpuffs on Tumblr, who introduced this crazy crossover ship to me. After delving deep into their fanart, I couldn’t stop myself from making this. I also borrowed some dialogue from one scene thing they did, and the design and Quirk for Blossom came from fanart of the PowerPuffs as My Hero characters by Tumblr user nessieusagi.


End file.
